Baguettes, Croissants, and Bonjours

After an awesome fall break, Michelle and I could not ignore our imminent and unavoidable futures. That future was two nights, 3 days in Paris. Rbitrarily I decided to two, not 2, and 3, not three there. I like it. I did have my first week of internship then, but Paris is too important a journey to really include other things in a blog post about it.

So Michelle and I wanted to leave Friday night, but the problem became getting a cheap plane ticket. Apparently easyjet doesn't actually make things easy, it just makes it cheaper. Who knew right? So we had to settle for a 7 am flight out of London Luton Airport. Would have been even easier if that airport was close or easy to get to, but my first statement is continuing to hold true. Michelle and I had to get up at 3 am in order to catch this flight on time because of travel time and things, but our real problem became actually getting up at 3 am. Thats because we didn't. Haha, our college years certainly have not gotten rid of our lack of being able to wake up for things properly. So I wake up at 4 am. First words out of my mouth you ask? Sorry, it wasn't a word. It was a curse word! A big fat cursey word.

So then we had to 1) get a cab 2) get a train 3) hope all went well so we actually got to the plane on time. It didn't help that once we got the cab I realized I had forgot my passport. Stupid Joe, screwin' things up for the rest of us. Long story, much shorter, we made it to the train station on time and luckily got to our plane as well. Luton was really small so customs took like 10 minutes max.

The plane ride was fine, as we arrived in a rainy Paris day. Ugh come on dude upstairs. Couldn't you just shine some warm sun for once? Michelle bought us some nice two day metro tickets with her great French(she got a wink as well of course). Then we set off on our Paris adventure. First stop? Hostel. The place was called Hotel de Paris, so we knew it would be a great tourist trap. It actually was pretty good in terms of what Michelle and I needed, and the staff was kinda nice as well. We dropped off our stuff there, took a quick quick nap, and then set off to be the greatest tourist there ever was. Pokemon style.

We went to Notre Dame Cathedral first, because Michelle had planned out the trip extra well. She had directions to and from every single place. What a great girl. Notre Dame was really cool and was my kind of church. It really was humongous, but there was some sort of reverence that enveloped the place that I had never experienced before. Just a humble place to worship the big dude.

 

We then headed off to the Pantheon. Ta Da! It was this place where a bunch of cool people were buried, where there was a bunch of awesome artwork, and science abundant. Namely, Foucalt's pendulum. Literally the most scientific way to prove the Earth is orbiting that I could ever think of. Can't argue with science.

The coolest part about going to the Pantheon was that we were tired and hungry, which meant lovely and delicious crepes. Mmmmm so good, chocolatey, yummy, and delish. Paris does it so well. I think my Mom might have actually gone to the same crepe place, since her hostel was really close to the Pantheon, but oddly enough she didn't actually go into the Pantheon. I'll never understand that logic. Michelle then took me to the most famous part about Paris. Whats that you say? You have no idea what I'd be talking about? What? Its not that old? Well thats right, we went to the not that old Eiffel Tower. Both the scourge and the blessing of Paris. It only took us a couple hours to get to the top, as we waited in a line that included a drunk guy telling me that he wouldn't hook up with Michelle because he was married. Great job dude, I like your moral fiber. At the top of the Eiffel Tower, we saw pretty much all of Paris as well as this weird thing going around the roof that pointed out where countries were and how far away on a map. We felt obliged to take a picture for the Parks of the world.

That night we got some nice wine, chilled out, while Michelle learned about crack babies on the French BBC. I'll never understand the fascination, but I'll guess it was more of a car crash effect. The next morning we got up and went to the Chateau de Versailles to soak up some free French rich culture. All these museums were free so we decided to go like everywhere. Versailles was extremely nice with spectacular architecture and artwork.

It really had everything you would have expected. Nice paintings, gold all over the place, expensive furniture, odes to royalty, lovely gardens, and modern Japanese art? About that. I'll never understand why this was there, but apparently the French found it necessary to have weird Japanese art randomly throughout Versailles. It had to symbolize something, but I couldn't really pinpoint what that was. Japanese people, cartoons, anime, colors, not French stuff? Whatever, it seemed awesome to the Asian tourists.

                                                   Me trying to look like one of the statues.
                                                           I'm better at advertising Nike.

We then went back into the city of Paris to visit the Louvre, which was basically much more of the same. Loads of classical art that was really old. The sculptures were amazing, the paintings were stunning, I thought the Mona Lisa was smiling at me, but thats still up for debate. My favorite part was actually the one Monet painting we saw. I love Monet. If you wanna give me a really expensive artwork at some random point in time, throw me a bone and get a Monet. NOT Manet jeez.

Last stop was the Pompedou? I put a question mark there because the museum was so modern, even sentences about it shouldn't be the samE. The building was made inside out in order to emphasize how modern the stuff was. I have to admit it was really cool and modern, but I can only take that stuff to an extent. After looking at artwork all day, I was pooped. This painting was really cool though. Look at the effects!

We decided to catch a late dinner, met a couple of women lover's in a restaurant who new a bunch about the US, and then came back to the hostel. Soooo tired at this point. I then got on my morning plane back to London, and Michelle started the second leg of her fall trip to Prague. So jeal. In the end, Paris was rainy, but fun. Thank God Michelle can speak the language.

Guys...Bridget is in London right now. Its a DC takeover!

I Have Almost Failed You

Readers, my lovely readers.

Whoops! Lemme try that again...

Viewers, my lovely viewers. I feel as though I may have failed you in terms of telling you what I'm doing and how much fun I'm having abroad. This I still blame on my lack of a computer, but to a certain extent I deserve some serious tongue flogging. But seriously, I don't think I deserve Passion of the Christ level stuff. Anyway, I will now attempt to finish my Germany trip, talk about my Paris trip, as well as give a good summary of my internship and what I'm doing lately. Then, we'll just let bygones be bygones and forget about the funny stuff in between. That is facebook chat/gchat conversation material!

So Michelle came to Frankfurt on Thursday night. My Aunt and I picked her up quite promptly, and then we went back to drink some alcohol/socialize. Michelle was really happy to get there safe and sound due to her fear of planes, so that was comforting. Yeah, I mean comforting to land the plane successfully. I know its not that exciting, but just think if YOU were afraid of flying. Yeah, I know, scary huh?

So the next day I went out on the town with Michelle to show her Frankfurt in all its glory. After going on a tour for 4.5 hours on Tuesday, I luckily remembered basically EVERYTHING about Frankfurt. That meant I was pretty much the best tour guide of all time. Michelle was basically fawning all over me for my great tour guide skills and excessive knowledge of the city. I impressed so hard. We even got frankfurters successfully, which brought up in my mind JFK's memorable quote, "Ich bin ein Berliner." Props to Kabak for that gchat conversation. We have a lot of cute pics up on facebook, that I will now tempt your eyes with: BAM!

Oops! Can't forget the trip to the German communications museum. I really did like it, but at that point we were a little tired, Michelle's ankle hurt, and everything was in German. How were we supposed to understand the communications museum without being able to communicate? Um. But great pictures nonetheless.

We then came back to lil ole Liederbach and got ready to go see a concert at the opera house in Frankfurt. The cool part about that is the environmental consciousness included in the concert. With the ticket you buy, you also get a train ticket included, which promotes the use of public transportation into the city instead of the use of cars. SO GREEN! The concert was actually really good and I found out that Germans love to clap. I'm talking they just clap for ages and ages and ages. No whistling, no woo hooing, no standing up, just straight up clapping for 10 minutes straight. It was both something to admire, and to abhore. But lets be honest, every culture is weird.

The next day the whole family took a nice trip to the Rhine. Well, to be honest, it wasn't the whole family since Martin and Julius had just gotten their feet operated on, so they got to sit at home and chill out all day. Also, they've been to the Rhine a lot at this point. We went to a nice little river festival, where there was this tasty type of wine they served everywhere. It had not been entirely fermented, so it was still extremely sweet, and to be fair, really delicious.

We then got to walk around the Rhine, take some more cute pictures, and go up to this huge monument that declared Germany united. Apparently it was the first time Germany had been united for a very long time(all time) so a monument seemed crucial.  The monument was at the top of a really large hill overlooking the Rhine, so we got to take this little car all the way up over the wine fields to the coldest and windiest place ever it seemed. But it was really peaceful and serene, especially when we went to a little convent overlooking the river as well. It had great views of everything, and we had a lot of fun. And yes, Helen did wave at every single person we passed in the ride to the top of the mountain.

Sunday Aunt Becky took Michelle and I to the German version of Versailles. Unfortunately I cannot remember what its called, so if anyone knows PLEASE tell me. Its really embarrassing not knowing where we went. But my first description of the place was entirely accurate. It had nice classical German architecture with wonderful gardens and a nice little quaint town.

You guessed it. I'm the pot.

The church there was insane. There was this big picture of Jesus looking down at you, and its eyes followed you everywhere. Talk about creepy. No wonder people in Europe sometimes don't like churches. Michelle and I took some cute pictures in the gardens and really enjoyed the feel(especially a weekend before we went to Versailles!). There was a really oddly placed Indian wedding taking place while we were there, and if anything threw of the atmosphere, BINGO. Don't worry, they were quiet. Of course, this was Halloween, so Michelle and I did have a chance to make a nice pumpkin for Helen and the twins. I hope they liked it, but we'll never know if my American skills translated to Europe. You can be the judge.

That night Michelle and I journeyed back to London again, leaving our beautiful trip behind. Many thanks to Aunt Becky, the twins, Carston, and Helen for a great trip, but regular duties back in the UK called. Namely, preparing for Paris. Ahhh yeah.

Sorry guys, I'm tired! I will now take out my contacts and then continue to blog and blog and blog and...

Frankfurt + Family = Fantastic

My fall break was mostly dominate by my stay in a little town near Frankfurt, Germany where my Aunt, Uncle, and my three cousins live. The town is called Liederbach, and is only a short train ride into the main city. They were nice enough to entertain me for the week, even throughout their busy lives, and I am extremely appreciative for that.

My flight from Edinburgh went off without a hitch as I flew the lovely airline Luftansa into Frankfurt. Tell ya what, they know how to serve a guy. First a drink, then a sandwich, then coffee or tea. Man that hit the spot.The flight was smooth sailing with a nice landing and a one hour time difference from the cold UK. Unfortunately, Frankfurt was just as cold. But my Aunt picked me up at the airport as planned and all went well from then on. I got to see my twin cousins when I got in to Liederbach since they were up sort of late, which was wonderful. I had missed seeing them this summer when they came to Corning since I was in DC, so the reunion was nice. They are seriously just as tall as me at this point, which is scary since my little brother is currently a good deal taller than me in the first place.

Luckily for me, my Aunt had already scheduled a bunch of stuff for us to do that week, so I didn't have to worry about planning issues. The first day we were there my Aunt and I went on a walking tour of Frankfurt. Although my Aunt has lived there for a long time, she still didn't know a lot of history about the city, so she was excited to do this too. The greatest part about the walking tour was that it was conducted by an ex-GI who had been stationed in Frankfurt following WWII. He spoke in clear American English, which made it extremely easy to understand, ya know, verbally and all.

The walking tour was only supposed to take about 3 hours, but I think the guy liked us so much that he went over time just an insy-winsy bit. The guy did know loads about Frankfurt, most of which I remember but would only bore you going into detail without having pictures of the landmarks, but the tour actually ended up lasting 4.5 hours. Like to walk and talk much? But seriously, I really enjoyed the walking tour as well as the top notch German cuisine my Aunt treated me to afterwords. We went to a traditional German bar/restaurant where I ate "meatloaf" and apple wine. The German meatloaf is much different than the American kind, since it is truly a big piece of ham. Delish though. The apple wine could have mos def used some work though. Not my favorite German alcoholic beverage by far. The highlight for the rest of the day was seeing my little cousin Helen and having my Uncle come home from his work travels. Helen likes to act a little shy and reserved when she first sees people she hasn't seen in a while, but it was fairly obvious after about an hour she was happy to see me. The next day resulted in a lot of Helen trying to be center of attention as well(really cute the first day at least haha).

The next day was a lot of fun as well. My Aunt took Helen and I to an old Roman fort that dated back to the more glorious days of that empire. As many will recall, Rome conquered like everything in Europe, especially some of the old German tribes. This fort was built on a mountain and connected with other forts and walls to keep invading German tribes out. Apparently back in the day no matter how many people got taken over, everyone still didn't like it. I understand I guess, but from the like 200 wells within a really small fort area, I wouldn't have minded having to speak Latin for a while. The fort was really cool in terms of seeing some of the old Roman architecture, armor, tools, and other things, but I hate to admit that my Aunt and I came to the general conclusion that the Germans could put a little more effort into museums. It definitely seemed that the bare minimum was done at the site, and when we walked past different people working there, they seemed to give us a look of "I know that we work here, so we have to be here. But why are you here?" In other words, they didn't think the place was that cool.

I then spent the rest of the day hanging out with Helen and the family. Helen in particular because we went on a bike ride around the town. The Germans love the whole experiencing the outdoors thing, so it was just one taste of their culture. It really was nice not having to run around to do 20 million things for site seeing and just be able to have a generally relaxed evening. The next day I got up relatively early(in other words no too early) in order to take a nice walk through the German hills. We passed by some wildlife, talked about stuff going on, went up to an old church, went up really high and saw the whole area, and just generally had a good walk/hike. I still am not sure whether to call it either of those things. The Germans like to act as if something they are doing is not as big of a deal as it is, so I'm going to use the minimalist "walk."

Later in the day it got really nice outside, so I decided to go outside and run around with Helen, which was actually pretty fun. She comes up with quite the games to play in small spaces. Then I just waited for Michelle to come that night! Yeah! Her flight got in about the same time on Thursday night that mine got in Monday, so it turned out to be about the same general schedule at the airport. Anyway, this blog post is HUGE, so I will postpone the next post about Michelle's time in Frankfurt to another time.

Donke